Co-production of hydrogen and acetaldehyde from ethanol over a highly dispersed Cu catalyst

Ethanol is one of the most promising bio-based renewable platform chemicals. Catalytic upgrading of ethanol into valuable products is of great importance, and co-production of hydrogen and acetaldehyde via the dehydrogenation of ethanol is an effective way for its high atomic utilization. In this work, unsaturated Cu sites (Cu-1.4/ZnxMg4.6-xAl2O7.6) with plenty interface of between Cu and support, strong metal-support interaction were synthesized via the controlled calcination and reduction of hydrotalcite-like Cu1.4ZnxMg4.6-xAl2(OH)(16)CO3 and used in the dehydrogenation of ethanol. Characterization results disclosed that the dispersion of Cu and surface area of Cu-1.4/Zn3.2Mg1.4Al2O7.6 reached 77.8% and 167.5 m(2)/g, respectively. This catalyst exhibited excellent activity for the dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde, and the detected selectivity of acetaldehyde and H-2 was higher than 98.5% at 280 degrees C, 0.1 MPa and WHSV = 11.8 h(-1). The calculated space-time yield of acetaldehyde reached 7.0 g-acetaldehyde/g-cat/h. At the same time, Cu-1.4/Zn3.2Mg1.4Al2O7.6 could maintain its activity within 50 h on stream.

Automated summary

In this study, a catalyst with abundant Cu sites and strong metal-support interaction was synthesized through controlled calcination and reduction. The catalyst demonstrated excellent activity and selectivity for the dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde, and maintained its activity for a prolonged period of time.